|
Gustave Courbet (artist) French, 1819 - 1877 The Stream (Le Ruisseau du Puits-Noir; vallée de la Loue), 1855 oil on canvas Overall: 104 x 137 cm (40 15/16 x 53 15/16 in.) framed: 129.5 x 161.9 cm (51 x 63 3/4 in.) Gift of Mr. and Mrs. P.H.B. Frelinghuysen in memory of her father and mother, Mr. and Mrs. H.O. Havemeyer 1943.15.2 |
Courbet painted events and scenery primarily from his native Ornans, a village in the remote Franche-Comté region. A proponent of realism, he challenged traditional ideas about art by depicting simple peasants and rustic scenery with dignity and on the grand scale usually reserved for history paintings.
Overhanging trees and lush green undergrowth surround a narrow waterway in the forest interior shown in The Stream. The primitive site, seemingly undisturbed by civilization, evokes a yearning popular during the nineteenth century, a romantic desire for a peaceful, restorative retreat from the rigors of modern life. Courbet used an unorthodox palette knife technique to apply irregular layers of pigments, creating a roughly worked surface imitating the textures of foliage, water, and chalky rocks to evoke the physical presence of the terrain.
When he exhibited this painting at the Exposition Universelle in 1855, Courbet specifically identified the wooded gorge in The Stream as Le ruisseau du Puits-noir, vallee de la Loue (Stream of the Black Well, Valley of the Loue), a famous site near Ornans. Long interested in the natural history of his region, including its geology, Courbet was scrupulously accurate in depicting the setting. Freshly observed details and subtle paint manipulation place the National Gallery painting as the first of several depictions of the site.